In a state House contest predicted by many to be hotly contested, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer handily beat her GOP rival Bill Hollister.
The winner of the 70th District state House seat said she’s going to focus on getting situated with her new job for the next couple of months.
After a long night of no sleep, Whitmer finally saw the numbers of her victory against Hollister. By winning by nearly 4,000 votes - and 57 percent to Hollister’s 43 - the East Lansing attorney said she couldn’t be happier.
“I’m so thrilled right now,” she said. “I just couldn’t be more excited.
“I can’t wait to go get started working.”
Well, she’ll have to wait a couple months. She’ll officially replace state Rep. Laura Baird, D-Okemos, in January. Baird couldn’t seek the seat again because of term limits.
The 70th District includes MSU.
Final vote tallies took hours to calculate for several reasons. John McCollough made a strong write-in effort to be elected Meridian Township’s supervisor. Thus, many of the districts’ votes had to be counted by hand - slowing the process.
“It was a little nerve-racking (Tuesday) night,” Whitmer said. “I thought the race would be a lot closer. I ran five or six percentage points above the base, so I was very pleased.”
Whitmer attributes her success to her supportive family and friends who she said aided her throughout the entire campaign.
Dennis Denno, a spokesman for the Michigan Democratic Party, said he believes Whitmer won the race and campaigned fairly. The race was considered crucial for Democrats hoping to gain the Legislature majority. That didn’t happen, though.
Denno criticized Hollister’s campaign efforts.
“I think Whitmer won on the issues, better health care, environment issues and Social Security,” he said. “Hollister made false accusations of her and threw mud at her. She ran a clean, model campaign that she should be proud of.”
Despite his 14-point loss, Hollister says he’s still in good spirits. While Whitmer is taking time off to prepare for her two-year term, Hollister will be taking a few weeks to vacation.
He said he will be visiting his daughter on the nation’s East Coast for the next few weeks, stopping in Boston and Nantucket, Mass.
“I guess I’m disappointed,” the East Lansing businessman said. “There were an awful lot of people that worked so hard during this campaign.”
Hollister said he appreciated the volunteers’ hard work and the support of his family. He said he thinks the voters must have disagreed with some of his important issues.
“I thought a very significant issue was to elect a candidate for the term-limit Legislature with experience,” he said.
“Obviously, the voters didn’t agree.”
He said the most important thing he learned during his campaign was the energy of young people and how nice the people of East Lansing and Meridian Township are.
And when asked if he had plans of running again, he answered: “The only plans I have of running is at the Michigan Athletic Club.”
